President's Letter: Expect Struggle and Embrace It

Welcome back for the 2017-2018 school year! I am thrilled to serve as president of the Virginia School Counselor Association. I have been an elementary school counselor for six years and am now embarking on a new adventure with the VSCA presidency as my main focus.

The beginning of a new school year brings hope, excitement, new goals and perhaps some nerves about what lies ahead. During the 2017 ASCA Conference in Colorado, our keynote speaker, Captain Mark Kelly, gave a powerful speech that inspired hope for the new year. He said, "How good you are at the beginning of anything you start is not an indicator of how good you will become." Captain Kelly’s quote is inspirational, especially when conceptualizing a new school year, and his words align perfectly with Carol Dweck's concept of growth mindset.

At the 2017 ASCA Conference, Dweck addressed more than 3,500 school counselors about the power of growth mindset and the importance of mistakes and struggling in the learning process. She said, “When you’re doing hard things, you struggle.” As school counselors, our jobs are filled with “hard things.” We constantly face ethical dilemmas, problems to solve, arguments to mediate, phone calls to field and data to analyze, as well as classrooms to manage. Mistakes and failures are an essential part of our learning process on the road toward success.
This year, expect struggle and embrace it as part of the learning process. This year, take risks and be vulnerable, because struggling is not a sign of weakness, it is the courageous and admirable path toward growth. This year, I hope you find the courageous counselor in yourself to struggle through the “hard things” we are faced with each and every day, and to allow yourself to grow far beyond where you began. Share your data, start the RAMP process, attend professional development, step out of your comfort zone, advocate for the school counseling profession and allow yourself to reap the benefits of the struggle. Let’s share our struggles, and celebrate our successes together. Connect with us on Twitter @VSCA, and on Facebook!
 
Contact Mary Robinson, VSCA president, at vscapresident@gmail.com.